The Heroes star and her fiancé have had an on-and-off-again relationship since meeting at a book party in 2009. After working things out and deciding they wanted to spend their lives together, they became engaged in 2013.

In an interview for the May 2013 issue of Glamour, the petite actress expressed her desire to start a family with her 6-foot-6 fiancé.

“I’ve lived a very big life, and I don’t feel my age, and I feel like I was born to be a mother,” she said. “Sometimes people speak about [having kids] like, ‘Your life ends—you’re never going to be able to do anything again!’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Motherhood is the most beautiful, exciting thing, and there’s nothing that I feel like I can’t accomplish while having children in my life.”

She even joked about what her kids with the towering Klitschko might look like. “He’s got bowlegs and I’ve got knocked knees, so they’re going to have straight legs,” said Panettiere on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in November 2013. “And they’ll be normal height.”

The couple recently put their wedding on hold due to unrest in Klitschko’s native Ukraine where his brother has just become the mayor of Kiev.